How to buy cheaper European train tickets

Eurostar and European train tickets can be a steal – but only if you time it right. There are also lots of great deals. 

Did you know that you can add on a journey to any Belgian station with your Eurostar ticket for just £12? Or that an Interrail pass can include two days of train travel in the UK and the Eurostar? 

Considering a sleeper train? Our research found Europe’s new night services could work out cheaper than flying for groups and families.

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Three-month rule for cheap Eurostar tickets

Eurostar tickets are available up to 11 months in advance, and you can compare prices week to week using the 'Find lowest fares' tool on its website. Data from thetrainline.com shows that prices remain fairly flat until about three months before, after which they begin to rise sharply. Return fares are cheaper than two single fares. Sign up to the Eurostar newsletter to be the first to know about special offers, which are usually for off-peak travel periods.

If you’re buying a non-refundable Eurostar ticket and planning an onward journey, book both at the same time so you don’t get caught out by engineering works. Most European countries release their train timetable three or four months in advance. There’s no need to worry about that if you’re off to Belgium and buy Eurostar’s ‘Brussels + any Belgian station’ ticket. It allows you to continue your journey from Brussels for an extra £12 – as long as you get to your final destination within 24 hours.

If you need to change the date or time of your Eurostar ticket, there’s no fee up to seven days before departure – you just pay the difference in fare. 

Buy a CIV ticket if you’re using Eurostar and live outside London

If you’re travelling to London by train, buying a CIV ticket means you’re covered by the International Conditions of Carriage. So if your train is delayed and you miss your Eurostar, you’ll be put on the next available service.

You can book an advance or flexible ‘Euro’ fare from most UK railway stations to ‘London International CIV’. CIV fares can work out to be cheaper during peak times, partly because your ticket can be used on the London Underground to get to St Pancras. 

You can only buy CIV tickets from ticket offices or trainsplit.com (deselect ‘use split tickets’, type ‘LNE’ as your destination and check it’s a ‘euro’ fare). You can use a railcard.

If your Eurostar is delayed and you miss an onward connection, you can catch the next high-speed service for free. This arrangement is known as Hop On The Next Available Train (HOTNAT) and also applies to western Europe’s main operators, including Eurostar, Deutsche Bahn (Germany), SNCF (France), SNCB (Belgium) and NS International (Netherlands). 

Get cheaper Italian and French train tickets by going slower

Save a bundle by hopping on slow regional services instead of high-speed trains. 

For example, it costs €55 for a flexible fare from Rome to Florence on Italy’s speedy Frecce trains (1 hour 30 mins). The stopping train takes more than two hours longer, but is only €23.50, and you can break the journey in the pretty Umbrian towns of Orvieto and Castiglione del Lago. 

When we checked, the cheapest fare from Paris to Dijon was £66 on a high-speed TGV for travel the following day. The fare for the regional TER train was almost half that (£34), and it takes 1 hour 10 minutes longer.

To find regional train routes, check Deutsche Bahn’s Europe-wide online timetable and tick ‘local transport only’. Regional and local train fares are fixed, so there’s no need to book in advance. 

Families can save on a sleeper train

Night trains are enjoying a renaissance in Europe. A dozen new routes have launched in recent years, and they sometimes cost less than a budget hotel. 

The biggest operator, Nightjet, links with Eurostar in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. Its trains have four and six-berth couchettes from €48 (£42) including a women-only compartment, and one, two or three-bed sleeping cars from €68 (£59) per person. 

When we compared the cost of air travel vs Eurostar plus sleeper service for three European routes, we found groups and families could save money by taking a sleeper train instead of flying. Two of the three services were cheaper for groups of four or six if you factor in the cost of baggage and an extra night’s accommodation.

While our spot-check research found that Eurostar seats and a private sleeping compartment would cost two adults more than flying, couples and solo travellers can save money by sharing a couchette or sleeper cabin with other travellers. 

When to book European train tickets

Train expert Mark Smith, aka the Man in Seat 61, told us: ‘European long-distance rail fares now work like airfares – cheap in advance, expensive on the day.’ 

It differs by country, but tickets are usually released two to six months in advance. Tickets for TGV, which operates France’s high-speed trains, go on sale four months in advance; for Deutsche Bahn, for long-distance travel in Germany, it’s up to six months. To bag the best deals, check Smith’s comprehensive travel site seat61.com for exact timings and set a reminder on your phone. 

It’s often cheaper to split complicated cross-border journeys into chunks. CIV protection is usually included for cross-border journeys, so you can travel on a later train if one leg is delayed.

Compare fares

For train journeys in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria or Switzerland, you can book tickets from Trainline or RailEurope.com. Prices can differ, so compare fares on both and the local train operator’s site. Most have an English version.

RailEurope.com charges a £6.45 flat fee (for journeys over £15) while Trainline adds a small percentage – so will probably be cheaper for one ticket. 

If you book directly with the local operator you won’t pay a booking fee, but their websites can sometimes be tricky to navigate and occasionally reject overseas cards. For example, you’ll need to scroll down to the bottom of France’s sncf-connect.com to change the language to English. Remember to use a debit or credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. 

Buy a German, Spanish, Italian or Belgian rail pass if you want flexibility

This year Germany introduced a €49 monthly pass (£42) with unlimited regional train, bus and tram travel. It’s valid from the first day of each calendar month. You have to set up a monthly subscription that you’ll need to cancel by the 10th of the current month to avoid being charged again. Buy it from int.bahn.de or the DB Navigator app. 

France is set to launch a similar rail pass for regional and intercity trains next summer.

Belgium also has a great-value rail pass. You can buy a 10-journey ticket for €96 (£83), which is valid for any route for a year. Buy it from belgiantrain.be, the SNCB app, ticket machines or any staffed station.

Spain’s rail pass is a lot pricier but it’s valid on long and medium-distance trains. You can buy a four (€195 for standard class/£169), six (€275/£238), eight (€350/£303) or 10-journey (€410/£355) pass, which allows you to take that number of journeys within a month (one train ride = one journey). Buy it from renfe.com or UK-based internationalrail.com, which charges a £10 booking fee. Unlike with Interrail passes, you don’t have to pay extra for seat reservations.

In Italy, you can buy a Trenitalia pass for three (€129/£112 for standard class), four (€157/£136), seven (€246/£213) or 10 journeys (€319/£276) to use on high-speed and intercity but not regional trains. Seat reservations are free but still required.

Europe’s best scenic railway journeys - as rated by travellers

Consider an Interrail pass ‒ but factor in seat reservations

If you’re planning to do a few long-distance journeys and want flexibility, consider an Interrail pass. The most popular option is for seven days in a month and costs €352 (£304 – equivalent to £43 a day), with a discount for those under 28 or over 60. This can include two days in the UK, so the first day of your trip could be travelling from your home to London, then on to Amsterdam, Paris or Brussels on the Eurostar.

On long-distance services, you usually have to pay extra for compulsory seat reservations, so factor the cost in: around €10 (£9) on intercity services in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, and around €30 (£26) on the Eurostar.